GLAST

GLAST E/PO Program Status

GLAST User’s Committee 6/7/05

Lynn Cominsky

Sonoma State University

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E/PO Work Breakdown Structure

1) Management2) Assessment and Evaluation (WestEd)3) Web based Materials

– Web Site – Newly revised– Space Mysteries

4) Educator Training– Educator Ambassadors Program– Conference participation

5) Printed materials– TOPS Lesson Modules– Posters and Activities

6) SLAC Virtual Visitor Center 7) PBS documentary (Tom Lucas Productions)8) Global (formerly GLAST) Telescope Network

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GLAST E/PO Web Site

http://glast.sonoma.edu

Features image gallery of hardware photos of both LAT and GBM

I&T Tracker installation training at SLAC

An earlier engineering unit

of the NaI detector

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• http://mystery.sonoma.edu– Dana Berry has done an animation of an AGN that will be used in the first GLAST Space Mystery–Comments are welcome!

Space Mysteries

Part of Early draft of AGN animation for Space Mystery

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3rd HEA AAVSO Workshop – 3/20-23/05

Co-sponsored by Swift and GLAST – about 90 AAVSO members and educators in attendance

Spear: Blazars of Our Times

Plait: GTN – included live demo of GORT

Plait also did public lecture “7 Ways a Black Hole Can Kill You”

Cominsky, Silva, Plait and Graves did a workshop for educators using “Cookie Cutter Astrophysics” beginning photometry activity

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Cookie Cutter Astrophysics

• Goal is to remove background from stellar image

• They also had to compare the brightnesses of the two stars in the “image”

• Tools: scale, ruler and plastic knife

star

background

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EA Workshops in FY05

– The 10 GLAST EAs have presented 40 workshops to students, teachers and the general public in the past five months

– They have reached 1100 direct participants and have distributed over 1000 GLAST material items

– New EA Sharla Dowding from Wyoming leads with 7 presentations, many others have 5 or 6 already (four are required per year)

– The SCIPP Tesla Coil show has done two presentations to an additional 150 participants

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New GLAST Exhibit Booth

Debuted at AAS in San Diego in January 2005

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New E/PO Exhibit Booth

Will be used for teacher conferences

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TOPS Learning Systems

FAR OUT MATH– Released in 2002–Very widely in use now

THUMBS UP: A Geometry of Space

– Now in review by WestEd–Expected to be in print by the end of 2005

http://www.topscience.org/

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TOPS Learning Systems

SCALE THE UNIVERSE— Now in print!— Used in many ongoing workshops by EAs and for EYH—Is the basis of mini-course that piloted with Roseland University Prep Charter School, will also be given to Boys & Girls Club this summer

http://www.topscience.org/

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You are Here!

• Mini-course for 8th -9th grade students– The Size and Scale of Things– How We See the Universe– Trip to the Sun– Solar System Travel Plans– Our Milky Way Galaxy and

Beyond

• Uses Scale the Universe and GEMS

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Active Galaxy Educator’s Guide

• Released in 2002• 3 activities

– Building Perspectives with Active Galaxies

– Zooming in on Active Galaxies– Light Travel Time and the Size of

Active Galaxies

• Poster of AGN– Widely used in many venues– Shows different angles, different

zooms

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Other printed materials

• New materials in development– GLAST Race Card Game – still in test

– AGN Pop-up Book – out for quotes

• GTN Observing activities tutorials– Cookie Cutter Astrophysics – now on line

–Astrometry tutorial - – tested at EA training, being written up

–Jelly bean Spectroscopy – tested at EA training, being written up

•Supernova Educator’s Guide (Joint with XMM-Newton)– First activity now on line – Excel model of supernova lightcurve

–Second activity now in test – Crawl of the Crab

–Third activity in development – Heart of Supernova

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AGN Popup Book

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Supernova Excel activity

o Supernova Educator Unit – Activity 1Supernova Educator Unit – Activity 1

o Excel spreadsheet that calculates supernova Excel spreadsheet that calculates supernova lightcurveslightcurves

o Students change isotopic abundancesStudents change isotopic abundances

o Students learn to plot data linearly and Students learn to plot data linearly and logarithmicallylogarithmically

o Students match their models to real supernova Students match their models to real supernova datadata

o Students discover the origin of heavy elementsStudents discover the origin of heavy elements

100(days)

100 200 300 400 500Ni56 9.602E+50 1.115E+46 1.296E+41 1.505E+36 1.749E+31Co56 3.369E+55 1.373E+55 5.596E+54 2.281E+54 9.295E+53Fe56 4.897E+55 6.893E+55 7.706E+55 8.038E+55 8.173E+55

Timestep for calculations Time vs. Species (number)

Adjust the time step to change the scale of the calculations.

Part of Excel spreadsheet

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SLAC Virtual Visitor’s Center

New console image – uses FRED to do simulation runs

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• Tom Lucas productions - $1M NSF grant to augment GLAST E/PO funds

• Program script now in development– NOVA Contract in negotiation–Should air early in 2006

• Planetarium show in production

PBS Television Special

Still image from black hole flight simulator sequence

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Global Telescope Network

• Website: http://gtn.sonoma.edu– Educator activities– Partner and Associate information– Tools for generating scripts and importing program

objects into telescope control software

• GORT NOW ONLINE!!• Remote demonstration at HEA

AAVSO meeting• Scripted observations now running• Mkn 501 campaign with VERITAS

GLAST Optical Robotic Telescope at the California Academy of Science’s Pepperwood Natural Preserve

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Potential Educational Projects

• Simple image reduction and analysis of ~15 AGN to establish variability baselines• Hands-On Universe• AAVSO participation

• Elk Creek Observatory at Holton, Kansas HS• Other new partners in Mexico, Finland, etc.

Global Telescope Network

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GTN Flyer and business cards

• First distributed at AAVSO

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GLAST Public Relations - Update

• “Giveaways” at science meetings– Out of stickers and flashlights– A few more Magic cubes left

• GLAST public brochure – – Now in print– Handed out at AAS

• Will be reprinting more posters and stickers when new PR funds arrive

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E/PO Summary

• GLAST E/PO is exciting the public and students of all ages

• We meet all requirements for NASA E/PO• We are on budget and moving ahead on all

scheduled items• Over 3500 teachers have been trained in 2004• GLAST E/PO materials are in the hands of over

15,000 teachers nationwide